318 OAK LAPPET. 



Having said as much of our night -fliers, with reference to 

 peculiarities of size and colour, as our prescribed limits will 

 permit, we shall now notice a few of them distinguished 

 especially with regard to form. Amongst the latter is the 

 moth ca]lcd the Oak Lappet,* already made known to our 

 readers as a " Walking Leaf" the only specimen of British 

 growth; and the very image of a " feuille mor/e" or, more 

 properly, of several dead leaves together, does it present, in its 

 large wings of rusty brown, deeply indented, and projecting, the 

 hindmost beyond the foremost pair.f 



These moths are further remarkable for corporations of most 

 portly dimensions, especially in the female, from whence their 

 scientific name of Gastropacha, signifying, thick bodies. Their 

 caterpillars are dusky grey or brown, with two velvety blue 

 spots or slits behind the head, and along each side is a row of 

 pendulous projections, which, from their fancied resemblance 

 to lappets, gave rise to the popular name of " Lappet Moth/' 

 It is found, as a caterpillar, on various grasses, the sloe, pear, 

 willow, bramble, and hawthorn survives the winter, enters in 

 May the chrysalidan cover, and thence expands about mid- 

 summer a mimic leaf of autumn. 



In the majority of moths the hinder wings are rounded ; 

 but in the " Swallow-tail '' we meet with a remarkable 

 deviation from this usual form the hindmost pinions being 

 prolonged, as well as the foremost, into an acute tail. 



* Gastropacha quercifolia. * Vignette to " Resemblance and Relation.'' 



